Special

por André Ricardo de Souza

Is the story told in the book Paul and Stephen true? (Part 2)

Crossing biographies and biblical texts with the work of Emmanuel

Some passages in the Acts of the Apostles contradict Paul and Stephen, and part of this is due to the choice of the directors of Spiritist films to base the movie on the biblical book of the evangelist Lucas, to the detriment of the work of Emmanuel. The main contradiction involves the relationship between Paul of Tarsus and Stephen still embodied. In Acts and in the biographies of the convert from Damascus, it is stated that the stoning2 occurred beyond the walls, that is, outside the city of Jerusalem, in a manner consistent, therefore, with the fact that, supposedly, there was no permission from the Roman authority for the execution in the city, as established in the law of the Empire (Wright, 2018, p. 54) and also the way it happened regarding Jesus.3 It is worth saying that Luke wrote Acts in the sequence of his gospel, something that had been suggested to him by his great friend Paul, as can be assumed, in a rational way, regardless of the account in the work of Emmanuel.4

In the book psychographed by Chico Xavier, when Paul is being taken to Rome, many Christians were touched and went to him, in Ephesus, to say goodbye and Luke then tells him of the intention to record the fact in his future biblical writings. The Damascus convert, however, determined that this should not be done and that the evangelist should not write about Paul's personal virtues either. As pointed out by Herminio Miranda (2010, p. 71), Lucas followed this determination. On the other hand, he disobeyed Paul by reporting part of his virtuous deeds and, mainly, by allowing himself to elaborate a non-criminalizing version of the apostle, at least regarding the deliberation and coordination of Stephen's extermination. For my part, I allow myself to say that this is a logical spiritist interpretation of the meaning of such a contradiction between the two texts.

I arrived to this interpretation based, at least partially, on a section of the first chapter of the work of the German priest, called: “Stephen and Saul”. There, Holzner (2008, p. 33-34), reports something that does not appear in the book Acts, which is to say: the heated debate that occurred between both:

It would be a mistake to regard the new Church as an independent and autonomous entity, with its own organization separate from Judaism. For the time being, it was presented only in the very free form of a synagogue, although it did not have its own building for worship. He was distinguished only by an impressively fervent belief in the Messiah, by the fraternal charity that united His followers, by the eating meals together and by the mystical and Eucharistic worship of Jesus, which was also involved in a certain mystery (Acts 2: 42-46). Stephen was one of His main representatives, and apparently he was the first to clearly manifest the definitive and universal value of the Church, contrasting it with the limited preparatory meaning of the Mosaic Law. Saul was, therefore, facing a respectable enemy. Let us go for a moment to a Jerusalem synagogue. At the entrance porch, one can read in Aramaic and Greek; “Synagogue of the Cilice”. People from all the diaspora communities are elbowing at the door, because today is a day of agreat fight. The house is full; the reading of the Scripture and the sermon are over, and the controversy begins. Behind a pillar, Peter and John watch the scene. In the center, on a higher platform, we see Stephen, and in front of him stands a slim figure, consumed by an inner fire: he is a young Rabbi from Tarsus, who is going to cross the sword with one of the greatest spirits of the young church (...)

We understand, therefore, with what violence Stephen and Saul, the defenders of two absolutely opposite conceptions about the coming of the Messiah, had to face each other (...) Saul was a contender of strong oratory talent, but Stephen demonstrated to be broadly superior to him. No one could resist “the wisdom and the Spirit that inspired him” (Ac 6,10), whereas the Pharisee could only oppose the arid words of the Law: “Cursed is everything that hangs on the tree”

Based on some excerpts from Acts and his personal research, Josef Holzner briefly reports what Emmanuel (2013, p. 80-89) inserted in detail in his book about Paul of Tarsus, regarding the clash between them, which took place at the Casa do Caminho, called by the German priest cilice Synagogue. It is never too much to say to the eventual non-spiritist reader that Chico Xavier would have enormous difficulty in accessing and consulting, with an interpreter, the book published in Germany in 1937, just four years before he psychographed the referred work.

There are also contradictions between Acts and some of Paul's epistles. The three small excerpts gathered below, from Holzner's book (2008, p. 60-62), deal with this and also with the three-year period, an interval - also pointed out by Wright (2018) - of isolation in the desert by the apostle to the Gentiles regarding the great importance in proving the history of Paul and Stephen and which will be addressed in this article later:

Regarding the events of the following years, there are apparent divergences between the narration of St. Luke and the indications provided by the Apostle in the letter to the Galatians. There is, of course, a shortcoming in the Acts. “A few days” (Ac 9, 20) are not enough to prepare a lasting missionary activity, and it is also unlikely that Paul would start preaching soon after his conversion: it does not match what we know of the great people who transformed the world after they were converted (...) “I left for Arabia”. The term “Arabia” was a very broad concept: it applied all over the Arabian peninsula to Damascus and even to the Euphrates (...) This retreat of almost three years was the most contemplative time (...) Here started, under the direction of the Spirit of Christ, the great process of interior transformation to which he himself refers in the Epistle to the Philippians (3, 7-11).

Among the biographies, it is also that of Josef Holzner (2008, p. 75; 79) who interprets the period of the apostle to the Gentiles in his hometown Tarsus - pointed out in them as being a decade - after leaving Jerusalem already as a converted Christian, with a notable similarity with the indication of only three years, contained in the story narrated by Emmanuel:

It seems more likely, however, that he lived in the neighborhood of the Jews of Tarsus, in the street of the weavers, since we have already seen that, as a son of Pharisees, he exercised when he was a young man in the weaving work (...) There is an intrinsic probability that Saul spent the next three or four years in silence, waiting for a new call from God. Sometimes God makes His chosen ones wait long. Like the Master in Nazareth, Paul, too, must be prepared for the moment when he was called.

It is worth noting, however, a notable partial similarity with Paul and Stephen also in the work of Wright (2018, p. 99), who, based on the Letter to the Romans (9: 1-5), mentioned the apostle's disappointment and sadness in relation to his relatives. The English theologian also considers the possibility that he had a romance with a woman, being in his opinion plausible that:

Paul was promised to someone from an early age, probably to the daughter of some family friend, and returned to Tarsus, eager to see her again, but also worried about how it would all unfold and also praying that she too would come to know Jesus (...) But she, or her parents, had broken off their engagement when they discovered that the full of energy young Saul had returned with his head and heart filled with the horrendous folly about the crucified Nazarene. Did Saul manage, as we say, “to forget her? [emphasis added] Nobody knows (Wright, 2018, p. 101). 

To conclude this crossing between Emmanuel's work, biographies and biblical texts, it is worth saying that Holzner (2008, p. 75) also underlines the Pauline authorship of the Letter to the Hebrews, written directly by the convert from Damascus, without any of his young people auxiliaries writing parchments and marked by a lot of commotion, as recorded in the psychographed book by Chico Xavier:

In the Epistle to the Hebrews, which was written according to the Apostle's mind and contains a good part of the treasure of his ideas [emphasis added], it refers precisely to the Lord's prayer in his mortal anguish: “Which in the days of his flesh He offered prayers and leas, with great cries and tears, to the One who could save him from death”(Hebr 5: 7).

Other evidence and a fact that shows the veracity of Paul and Stephen

In addition to the evidence of historical veracity of Paul and Stephen mentioned above, it is worth mentioning three more, all related to the Greek city of Corinth, where the martyr was born and also his sister Abigail, whom the book points out as the bride of the apostle to the Gentiles, who died shortly afterwards. after converting to Christianity.

It has already been said in the spiritist medium, publicly, by Haroldo Dias that the streets of the capital of the former province of Acaia - described by Emmanuel as “sumptuous” - are made of marble, according to the archaeological discoveries made (Crook, 2018, p. 32-33 ). On trips to that city, two other spiritist activists observed aspects consistent with the book psychographed by Chico Xavier. Dias' partner, the musician Julio Adriano Corradi indicates that one month was necessary for a ship to cross (transported on wooden wheels) the ancient 6.4 km road on the isthmus (narrow strip of land), since a water channel 5  was only built there in 1893 - corresponding to the period that Jesiel (Hebrew and former name of Stephen) remained in prison, with wounds healing, until he could enter as a slave in a typical vessel of the time, called “galera”. Finally, the scholar Altino Mageste, who organizes trips for non-profit spiritist groups, to that and other cities included in Emmanuel's historical works, points out that the maps of Corinth and the description in detail in the book make it possible to locate the prison where Stephen, his sister and father Jochebed were incarcerated.

Having seen all these signs, we finally arrived at a fact that shows the veracity of the story narrated by Emmanuel. To understand it, let us start with what Josef Holzner (2008, p. 63; 82) says about Paul of Tarsus:

He himself preferred to call it "my gospel". “That I did not receive or learn from man, but through the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Gal 1, 12; cv. Eph 3, 4-5), that is, his knowledge of the universal plan of salvation announced by God

(...) It is difficult for us to evaluate how the stay in Arabia and these years spent in Tarsus were important and decisive for the interior evolution and the maturation of the Pauline theology. When Paul, in his letters, speaks so much of 'his Gospel', it is in Tarsus that we must look for the principles of this wonderful knowledge.

And let us also see the reflection on Nicholas Thomas Wright (2018, p. 79; 84): 

Apparently, he had been accused of extracting a second-hand “gospel” from the Jerusalem apostles. (...) Paul, in other words, is not only making it clear in Galatians 1 - 2 that his “gospel” was given to him directly, and not acquired, second-hand, through the leaders of Jerusalem, as he is also clarifying that his calling and commissioning positioned him in the ancient prophetic tradition, whether from Isaiah, Jeremiah, or Elias himself.

In addition to the Letter to the Galatians and the Letter to the Ephesians, Paul's reference to “his gospel” is still present in two parts of the Letter to the Romans (2:16 and 16:15) and in his last epistle, the touching Second Letter to Timothy (2:18). In fact, this strange personalism of Paul calls attention when he uses the expression “my gospel” for the good news that, in truth, belongs to Jesus. Holzner, (2008, p. 63) thus sought to explain it:

This is not to say that he had a different gospel than that of the other Apostles; in that case, he would have been expelled from the nascent Church. But he announced it with an unparalleled energy, coherence and power of speech, and impressed him with such a personal and unparalleled stamp, introducing into it the world of the Hellenistic intellectual, who could well say: “my gospel”.

Wright (2018, p. 80), in turn, also tried to explain it:

Paul is therefore insisting that his message came from himself: he had received it from Jesus himself, not from other members of the movement. It had come, he says, "through a revelation of Jesus the Messiah" (Galatians 1:12). 

If Holzner's interpretation is rational and believable, Wright's gives rise to thinking that Jesus would have made revelations exclusively to Paul of Tarsus, something, however, which he did not, in fact, make explicit in his epistles or in Acts, written by Lucas. Considering that the dialogue with the Messiah at the gates of Damascus has been mentioned several times, it would be expected that the same would happen with regard to such revelations, if any. 

However, Josef Holzner's interpretation is not, however, satisfactory. For if we consider that the Pauline period in isolation of three years, before he spoke for a very short period (probably a few weeks) with the apostles in Jerusalem and also the next interval, again isolated for three years in Tarsus, were very important for his reflection on Jesus, a doubt remains. Which is to say: only a thorough reinterpretation of the texts of the Mosaic law and of the prophets, in the light of events, then recent, would have been sufficient for all the discernment made by him? If we add to this the fact that the expression “my gospel” - or if we want: “my good news”, objectively, therefore: not that of Jesus - is attributed to someone like him, whose apostolic trajectory was marked by self-denial, doubt about it only increases.

For it is in Emmanuel's work that not only the most logical explanation of the fact is found, but the answer to this true puzzle: Paul of Tarsus used the expression “my gospel” because he effectively owned and kept with zeal scrolls containing notes about the teachings of Jesus Christ, that is, one of the copies of the gospel written by Matthew, also called Levi. Since this was the only apostle with a typical profession of someone literate (tax collector) who had remained following the messiah together with humble fishermen, it was natural that he sought to make such a record.

As Chico Xavier's psychographed book narrates, the “gospel of Paul” had been donated to him by his former teacher of childhood and youth, the also converted rabbi Gamaliel, at the beginning of the first period of Paul's isolation. The latter, in turn, had received the document as a gift from Simon Peter, in return for a cordial visit to Casa do Caminho, even before Stephen's martyrdom. Emmanuel reports that, during Paul's first missionary trip, made with his friend Barnabas to the island of Cyprus, both suffered an assault at night, while they were in a cave talking about a “true treasure”: the gospel of Jesus in their possession. One of the two thieves, said he heard and then demanded the surrender of such wealth along with other belongings, this being done serenely by the apostle of the Gentiles. It is worth reproducing the dialogue that Barnabas and Paul had the following morning:

- I am resigned to the absolute lack of material resources, but I cannot forget that the Gospel notes we had were also taken away from us. How can we restart our task? If we know by heart a large part of the teachings, we will not be able to check all the expressions ...

However, Paulo made a significant gesture and, unbuttoning his tunic, removed something that he kept close to his heart [emphasis added].

"You are wrong, Barnabas," he said with an optimistic smile, "I have the Gospel here that reminds me of Gamaliel's kindness." It was a gift from Simon Peter to my old mentor, who, in turn, gave it to me just before he died. (Xavier; Emmanuel, 2013 p. 312-313)

As you can see, Paul of Tarsus not only had a copy of the first writing on the good news of Jesus, but it had a great symbolic-sentimental value due to the trajectory that the document had until reaching his hands, remaining with him after that assault, something that made him allow himself to be called "my gospel". With such an expression, the apostle of the Gentiles also seems to admonish the Christian communities formed by him not to distort the gospel, copied by them as well. This rational deduction only reinforces the finding of the existence of those notes. Contrary to what researchers say, including Spiritists, instead of the First Letter to the Thessalonians, therefore, that was the first New Testament document.1 (Continued in the next edition.)


Referências bibliográficas:

ASSUNCAO, Carlos Henrique Nagipe. Existence of Publius Lentulus at the time of Emperor Tiberius I: The special position in Palestine. Reformador (, year 132, n. 2,221, April br. 2014a, p. 25 (215) - 29 (219).

_______. Existence of Publius Lentulus at the time of Emperor Tiberius II:  The role as senator and consul suffectusReformador, year 132. n. 2.222, May. 2014b, p. 14(268)-19(273).

CARVALHO, Antonio Cesar Perri de. Espístolas de Paulo à luz do espiritismo (Epistles of Paul at the light of Spiritism). Matao, O Clarim, 2016.

CHAMPLIN, Russel Norman. O Novo Testamento interpretado: versiculo por versiculo. (The New Testament interpreted: verse by verse). Vols. 3-5. Sao Paulo, Hagnos, 2014.

CROOK, Wilson W. The Design and Layout of First Century A. D. Roman Cities. The Journal Houston Archeological Society, n. 138, 2018, p. 31-42 (Link-2)

HOLZNER, Josef. Paul of Tarsus. 2nd edition. Sao Paulo, Quadrante, 2008.

XAVIER, Francisco Candido. Paul and Stephen. By the Spirit Emmanuel. 45th edition. Brasilia, FEB, 2013.

_______. Ha dois mil anos (Two Thousand Years ago). 46th edition. Rio de Janeiro. FEB, 2009.

WRIGHT, Nicholas Thomas. Paul: a biography. Rio de Janeiro, Thomas Nelson Brasil, 2018.

 

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1 It is worth saying that Emmanuel (2013, p. 9; p. 298) does not refer to Stephen as the first, but rather the “great martyr of Christianity” and, later, the “martyr of Christianity”. He does this in a coherent way, because in the book Two thousand years ago (2009), published in 1939, of the same: author and medium, it is reported the chronological previous martyrdom of Simeon, the one who sent to the Christian harvest Lívia, the wife of Roman senator Publio Lentulus (Assuncao, 2014a; 2014b), who, through Chico Xavier's psychographic, was revealed as Emmanuel's reincarnation.

2 It happens that Paul of Tarsus, according to the book by Emmanuel (2013, p. 110), personally asked the Roman prosecutor for permission for Stephen's execution within the city, which made it, therefore, a legal act.

3 The apostle of the Gentiles intended to write a gospel containing, among other things, the account of the birth of Jesus, so he personally collected the testimony of Mary of Nazareth. It is noted that, when he realized that he would not be able to handle the task, due to the tasks before the Christian communities formed by him and his prison, Paul delegated it to Lucas - the only evangelist to deal with Jesus in childhood - transmitting to him the information that he had already had met until then.

4 Link-1 Acesso em: 21/03/2021

5 Without the presence of the young John Marcus who had left the trio to return to Jerusalem, without first receiving relevant recommendations from Paul of Tarsus, something that perhaps influenced him to write, later, the Gospel of Marcos, based on the memories of Simon Peter.


André Ricardo de Souza is PhD in Sociology at the University of Sao Paulo, Associate Professor II at the Department of Sociology at the Federal University of Sao Carlos and organizer of the books: Spirituality and Spiritism: Reflections beyond religiosity (Porto de Ideias, 2017) and Identity and assistance dimensions of Spiritism (Appris, 2020). He is a member of the Sao Paulo Spiritist Heart of Jesus group from São Paulo.


 

Translation:
Eleni Frangatos - eleni.moreira@uol.com.br

 
 

     
     

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